Scotland Food News – December 2014

This month, we salute fine cheese, prepare for an onslaught of power ballads, and blast through the whole of the Christmas season in a couple of paragraphs

Feature by Peter Simpson | 01 Dec 2014

First thing’s first, our congratulations to Glasgow cheesemongers George Mewes, named Cheese Counter of the Year at the annual World Cheese Awards a few weeks back. The Byres Road shop beat competition from across the UK to grab the prize. Will it prevail in our Readers’ Food and Drink Survey? Honestly, we don’t know, as the voting hasn’t closed at the time of writing. But soon we’ll all know! Anyway, good work George Mewes – may your cheese’s aroma waft heartily into the streets of the West End.

From cheese to coffee, and the Glasgow Coffee Festival. The event at the Briggait will offer a host of masterclasses and the chance to taste coffees from producers from far and wide, as well as see some coffee-related art and film. The event also features the Scottish heat of the UK Barista Championship, so grab a cup, immerse yourself in some coffee culture, then watch the thrilling spectacle of competitive coffee making unfold while urging the contestants to work in some crazy Phagomania-inspired 3D latte art. 6 Dec, The Briggait, 141 Bridgegate, £9, facebook.com/TheGlasgowCoffeeFestival

Now, beer! It’s the return of the Summerhall Beer Festival at the Edinburgh arts hub, with the former veterinary school’s dissection room turned into a beer hall. Barney’s Beer, Summerhall’s resident brewery, will be in attendance along with Williams Brothers and Top Out. For those of you who fancy the beer festival but not the beer, Summerhall’s own Pickering’s Gin will be in situ, as will the Rum Surgery from drinks whizzes SolidLiquids. If the local beer, gin, and rum don’t swing it for you, maybe you can be brought on board by the fact that the early session on Friday has a ‘power ballads’ theme. Yes, that should convince you. 5 Dec, 4.30–7pm, from 8pm; Sat 2–7pm, from 8pm; Summerhall, 1 Summerhall Pl, tickets £8 (£6 for Friday’s early session).

Well, we’ve made it most of the way through, so let’s quickly deal with the tinsel-covered elephant in the room. There are of course Christmas markets and the like all over the shop, with east coasters in need of foodie gifts catered for by the Edinburgh Ethical Christmas Fair (Ocean Terminal, 6 Dec–2 Jan) and the ubiquitous and ever-expanding Edinburgh’s Christmas with its European Christmas Market and Scottish Market (St Andrew Sq and Princes St Gardens, every day in Dec), while those in the west have the boutique loveliness of the Christmas Fayre at the House for an Art Lover in Bellahouston Park to look forward to (7 Dec).

Away from the elbow-room-only rush of the Christmas markets, Edinburgh bakers Lovecrumbs have teamed up with Pyrus flowers for a cafe-based wreath-making class (11 Dec, £35, email yoohoo@lovecrumbs.co.uk to book), while the capital’s Hard Rock Cafe show that rock music makes anything possible by laying on not one but two breakfasts with Santa (20 & 21 Dec, 9am, 20 George St, £12.95). You check out that lot, we’ll count up your Food Survey responses, and we’ll meet back here in January.